Regulation of adenovirus-2 gene expression at the level of transcriptional termination and RNA processing

Abstract

The major late adenovirus-2 transcription unit is active early in infection at a rate equal to that of the other early transcription units. However, transcripts seem to terminate early in infection near map position 60-70 in contrast to late in infection, when termination occurs at map position 99. RNA processing, both poly(A) site selection and splicing, results in the production of a single L1 mRNA during early infection. All these processes are in contrast to those occurring late in infection, indicating that the events of transcriptional termination, poly(A) site selection and splicing can change depending on the conditions of the cell and therefore can participate in the regulation of gene expression.